2025
THE WOMEN HAVE WINGS AWARDS
Virginia Donato
Brazil
Virginia Donato leads with her courageous, beautiful heart. As Director of Instituto Playing for Change (IPFC) in Curitiba, Brazil, she has dedicated her life to empowering young girls, boys, and families through education, the arts, and deep community engagement. Since 2015, her organization has served over 2,000 children, offering free classes in music, dance, theater, English, and more in a neighborhood with great need.
Virginia has created a safe, inclusive environment where girls are respected, encouraged, and seen. Under her leadership, IPFC’s dance program—comprising mostly girls—has grown from modest beginnings to performing internationally. She has personally funded efforts to preserve cultural traditions, including supporting female artists in male-dominated fields, and is a tireless advocate for gender equality in a country where female leadership is still uncommon.
Her impact extends far beyond IPFC’s programs. During the devastating floods in southern Brazil, Virginia organized large-scale relief efforts, delivering food, supplies, and hope to hundreds of families. She did the same during the COVID pandemic—often in person, before vaccines were available—and kept IPFC running through every crisis, sometimes as the sole staff member present.
Virginia builds authentic relationships with the children and families she serves. When one girl faced rejection for identifying as lesbian, Virginia intervened with fierce compassion, telling the parents, “If you don’t want your child, I’ll take her in as my own.” Her words helped change their hearts. She not only champions LGBTQ+ rights, but has empowered young mothers through IPFC’s music program, giving them a platform to grow and lead.
Her team often jokes, “Where can we find another Virginia? No one like her exists.” She is a rock, a visionary, and a source of unconditional love who inspires others to believe in their power to create positive change.
Jill Langhus-Griffin
United States
Jill Langhus-Griffin is a powerful voice in our community, consistently lifting and supporting others through encouragement. She runs Liluye, an initiative that strives to combat human trafficking, fostering survivor support, and create a global community of support to address trafficking as an issue. Jill has been actively involved in facilitating the rescue, healing, and reintegration of survivors into their communities in the aftermath of their experience of trafficking, and continues to facilitate their economic, psychosocial, and community-centric empowerment. As an inspiring change maker, Jill is a cornerstone of the World Pulse community— consistently stepping up to offer meaningful support, spark new introductions, share funding opportunities, and build personal connections. She listens deeply, learns what others need, and actively works to connect them with the resources and relationships that can help them thrive.
Jummai Mutai
Nigeria
Amina Ali Nkeki
Nigeria
Rahab Ibrahim
Nigeria
Margaret Yama
Nigeria
Jummai Mutai, Amina Ali Nkeki, Rahab Ibrahim, and Margaret Yama are outstanding examples of excellence and resilience, and play a crucial role as Field Coordinators for the Catharsis Arts Foundation. As survivors of the 2014 Chibok abductions by Boko Haram, these young women have demonstrated extraordinary courage escaping captivity, overcoming stigma, and pursuing education against great odds.
Today, Jummai, Amina, Rahab and Margaret gather key information to help others understand and raise awareness on the depth of experience of Chibok Girls’ and their layered reality–without falling into narratives of victimhood. They have advocated for the rights and needs of other survivors, and help Catharsis in shaping programs rooted in reality rather than assumption.
Each coordinator brings a powerful story to her work. Jummai balances motherhood and her education. Amina, one of the first girls to escape, returned with her child and is in school with a determination to rebuild. Rahab dreams of becoming a journalist and raises awareness on education by mentoring children in her community during school holidays. Margaret rose to the Dean’s List and is vocal about the girl’s fight for education. Together, they act as vital bridges between NGOs and the girls — providing honest mind sights and inspiring others to reclaim their futures.
Their work not only supports immediate recovery but seeds long-term transformation, proving that even the deepest wounds can give rise to leadership, hope, and collective healing.
Tonye Faloughi-Ekezie
Nigeria
Tonye Faloughi-Ekezie is a rising star in the Nigerian and African disability advocacy space — a bold, fresh voice breaking barriers with creativity, authenticity, and purpose. As the founder of Simone’s Oasis, inspired by her daughter with Down syndrome, Tonye is confronting harmful, centuries-old stigmas that label special needs children as curses, burdens, or even supernatural beings. Through storytelling and lived experience, she reframes disability not as limitation but as potential.
Her Ugo and Sim Sim series — the world’s first children’s books and animated content featuring a black main character with Down syndrome— challenges invisibility and celebrates African family life and neurodiversity. Tonye self-published over 5,000 copies after facing prejudice from Nigerian publishers and retailers who rejected the idea of a main character with special needs. Her stories, rich in cultural authenticity and emotional truth, inspire children, parents, and educators to embrace inclusion and empathy.
She leads impactful parent and teacher workshops in partnership with organizations like GTCO and FOS, co-hosts the Special Mums Africa podcast, and is developing the Sensory Safe Puberty Project. Her Black Child Down Syndrome Project is underway, launched in March with a groundbreaking photography exhibition in London with renowned photographer Misan Harriman.
Her voice is on the rise— featured in The Guardian UK as one of the “Top 10 People We Met Around the World” in 2024, and speaking at the United Nations in New York and the Dear Mom Conference in Laguna Beach this year. In May, she will present her abstract “Cultural Trends on Autism in Nigeria” at the INSAR annual conference in Seattle.
Tonye’s power lies in her raw, real storytelling and her fight for our children to be seen, heard, and celebrated. She’s only getting started— with greater support, she’ll be a transformative force across Africa and beyond.
Laura Bates
United Kingdom
Laura Bates is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, an ever-increasing collection of over 200,000 testimonies of global gender inequality. She is the author of eight books, including Everyday Sexism (shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year), the Sunday Times bestseller Girl Up, The Burning (nominated for the Carnegie Medal) and Fix the System, Not the Women. Her books have been translated into 8 languages.
Laura writes regularly for the Guardian and the New York Times amongst others and won a British Press Award in 2015. She is a frequent media commentator across Newsnight, Today, BBC Breakfast, Channel 4 News, CNN and more. She has presented two BBC television documentaries and is a consultant for productions tackling issues around gender inequality.
Laura works closely with politicians, businesses, schools, police forces and organizations from the Council of Europe to the United Nations to tackle gender inequality. Her campaign work alongside other activists has included persuading Facebook to change its policies on rape and domestic abuse content, putting sexual consent and healthy relationships on the school curriculum and improving the way in which the British Transport Police respond to incidents of sexual violence. Her speaking work has taken her from Wembley Stadium to the Sydney Opera House to President Obama's White House Summit on the United State of Women.
Laura is a contributor at Women Under Siege, a New York-based project tackling rape in conflict worldwide and she is patron of SARSAS, Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support. She is on the Board of Directors for Equimundo, an NGO which is a global leader in engaging men and boys to advance gender equality and prevent violence against women.
Laura was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to gender equality in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2015 and has been named a Woman of the Year by Cosmopolitan, Red Magazine and The Sunday Times Magazine. She has been named on the Woman's Hour Power List and was one of the BBC's inaugural 100 Women. She is the recipient of two honorary degrees and was awarded the Internet and Society Award by the Oxford Internet Institute alongside Sir Tim Berners Lee. In the US, she has received the Women's Media Award from the Women's Media Center, and been named one of CNN's 10 'Visionary Women'.
Reshma Saujani
United States
Reshma Saujani is a leading activist, the founder of Girls Who Code, the founder and CEO of Moms First, and the host of My So-Called Midlife with Lemonada Media. She has spent more than a decade building movements to fight for women and girls’ economic empowerment, working to close the gender gap in the tech sector, and most recently, fighting for the structural changes moms need and deserve including affordable child care, paid leave, and equal pay. She is a New York Times Bestselling author of several books including PAY UP: The Future of Women and Work (And Why It’s Different Than You Think), Brave, Not Perfect, and the Girls Who Code book series. As a leading voice on women’s empowerment, her 2023 Smith College Commencement speech on imposter syndrome has more than 18 million views, and her influential TED talk, “Teach girls bravery, not perfection,” has more than 54 million views globally.
Reshma began her career as an attorney and Democratic organizer. In 2010, she surged onto the political scene as the first Indian American woman to run for U.S. Congress. During the race, Reshma visited local schools and saw the gender gap in computing classes firsthand, which led her to start Girls Who Code. She also served as New York City’s Deputy Public Advocate, where she created innovative partnerships to support DREAMers and promote campaign finance reform, among other initiatives.
In her nine-year tenure as the CEO of Girls Who Code, Reshma grew the organization to one of the largest and most prestigious non-profits in the country. Today, Girls Who Code has taught nearly 600,000 girls through direct in-person computer science education programming, and reached 14.6 billion engagements worldwide through its New York Times-bestselling book series and its Cannes Lions and Clio award-winning campaigns. In 2019, Girls Who Code was awarded Most Innovative Non-Profit by Fast Company.
In response to the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on America’s moms, Reshma launched Moms First (formerly Marshall Plan for Moms) to advocate for policies that value women’s labor in and out of the home. The grassroots movement has grown to over one million moms and supporters, has framed the national conversation about how we support moms, and is backed by A-list celebrities, activists, and business leaders. Building on her technology roots and her optimism about the potential to use AI for good, in 2023, Reshma and Moms First launched PaidLeave.ai to help parents more easily access paid leave benefits. Reshma has successfully worked with House and Senate leaders to introduce “Marshall Plan for Moms” legislation at the federal level, and she was instrumental in the creation of New York City’s Marshall Plan for Moms Task Force. She continues to act as an outside agitator to change culture through creative awareness campaigns.
Barbara Flores
Brazil
Imagine that you were told you could not speak the language of your grandparents and great grandparents. Imagine that you were told you must try to look like others around you, you must “fit in,” and if you didn’t, you could be killed. Imagine that you were told you didn’t have any place that was “home”— meaning land, forests, rivers, territories, and customs. Imagine that you were told— you were “extinct.” And imagine the courage it would take to stand up and say NO – that you, and others like you, very much exist, are not extinct. That you have rights and culture and knowledge and practices that, in fact, the world needs to learn from today. And imagine that you decided to work— for the rest of your life— to find your people, to bring them together, and to resow the seeds of wisdom that had been buried so long ago. This is the imagination, the reality, and the courage of Barbara Nascimento Flores Borum-Kren.
Barbara works as a mother, an Indigenous and feminist activist, a scholar, and a global leader. She hails from Brazil and works on a global scale. She founded and leads network of Indigenous women activists. She challenges scientists to rethink their deeply embedded conceptions of “what science is.” And she pushes people (including herself) into new spaces. As Barbara noted in a recent article in Brazil’s leading newspaper, “We [Indigenous peoples] have stopped being just scientific data and grown into doing science.” Most of all, Barbara tenaciously and courageously carries out her individual work— socio-environmental projects, the struggles of Indigenous women, and the recovery of the biocultural memory of my body/my people/my territory— as well as her collective work—using common struggles, strategies, and wisdom of native peoples around the world to change the world.
Nidaa Nassar
Palestine
Nidaa Nassar is a courageous feminist organizer and political leader dedicated to building collective power among Palestinian youth in Israel. As Director of Baladna— Association for Arab Youth, Nidaa leads one of the few grassroots organizations that fosters political, feminist, and national consciousness and collective action among Palestinians navigating systemic erasure, fragmentation, and militarized state violence.
Drawing from over 15 years of experience in movement-building and strategic advocacy, Nidaa has cultivated community spaces where youth can engage critically with their identity and history— spaces that are increasingly rare under conditions of surveillance and repression. Through programs rooted in popular education and collective action, she encourages youth to connect their lived experiences with broader structures of oppression and to act as agents of change in a political environment where even youth engagement is seen as a threat. Her leadership has galvanized youth clubs in places like the Naqab and Nazareth, where young people now organize protests, develop campaigns, and challenge both colonial and patriarchal systems..
Nidaa is dynamic in her strategy and deeply collaborative in her approach. She resists both external colonial frameworks and internal patriarchy, modeling a deeply feminist approach to liberation. As a member of the Balad National Democratic Assembly’s highest political body, she also bridges grassroots activism with formal political work, ensuring youth voices inform broader strategies for justice. Her work continues to inspire young people to step into leadership, reclaim their narratives, and challenge the systems that seek to silence them. Nidaa embodies the values of Women Have Wings: courage, vision, and a steadfast commitment to a just and free future for all.
Raya Homsi
Syria
Raya Homsi is a courageous Syrian human rights activist and feminist advocating for truth, justice, and accountability. As Development and Impact Manager at The Syria Campaign— a global human rights organization— she plays a key role in sustaining movements for justice through strategic fundraising, campaigning, advocacy, and storytelling. Her efforts have contributed to securing vital resources for frontline groups including the White Helmets and Families for Freedom.
Raya’s activism is rooted in personal love and defiance. In March 2012, her fiancé was forcibly disappeared by the Assad regime for peacefully protesting for freedom and dignity. She never saw him again, and for years she searched and waited for answers. From the moment of his disappearance, Raya took up the fight to save him— refusing to accept silence as an answer. What began as a personal quest grew into a lifelong commitment to uncovering the fate of the tens of thousands of Syrians forcibly disappeared. Her advocacy emerged from hope and determination, grounded in the belief that every family has the right to know the truth.
Since 2017, Raya has joined the courageous struggle of the women as part of Families for Freedom— a women-led movement demanding truth for Syria’s disappeared. Tirelessly campaigning alongside families, she has helped create a collective power which has contributed to the creation of the International Institution on Missing Persons in Syria— the first UN-mandated body of its kind—bringing survivor-centered justice into international policy spaces.
“Today, as we celebrate the fall of the Assad regime, we must acknowledge that this moment was made possible by the determination of Syrian women— those who carried the names and stories of their disappeared loved ones into the streets, into courtrooms, and into the halls of the United Nations,” Raya says, “While the road to justice is still long, our fight continues. Women’s voices and rights must be central to Syria’s political transition and the journey toward inclusive transitional justice. Syrian women must be at the table— leading conversations, contributing to the new constitution, designing institutions, and ensuring that justice reflects the experiences and needs of all Syrians. This is the only path to a truly just, inclusive, and democratic Syria.”
Fatima Ahmed
Sudan
Fatima Ahmed, a courageous Sudanese human rights activist, is the founder and director of Zenab for Women in Development, which has advanced rural Sudanese women and girls’ rights since 2000. Amid Sudan’s ongoing war, Fatima is leading with unwavering resolve—meeting urgent needs while pursuing long-term social, political, and economic change.
At great personal risk, Fatima has ensured that women are not only recipients of aid but leaders in shaping peace and recovery. She brings the voices of Sudanese women to the global stage, including by addressing the UN Security Council in February 2024, urging an end to violence and women’s leadership in peace efforts. She also mobilizes local networks to meet life-saving needs in conflict affected communities across Sudan.
One of her most impactful initiatives since the start of the war is a maternity center in Gedaref State for pregnant IDP women. The center has supported over 500 women with safe delivery services, pre- and post-natal care, pediatric and psychological care, and essential medicine. In a context where many give birth in unsafe conditions, this has reduced maternal and infant mortality and restored dignity to the most vulnerable. With the war uprooting millions, Fatima has led a humanitarian response that has provided over 17,000 displaced people in Sudan and over 13,000 refugees in neighboring countries with food, shelter, medicine, and dignity kits—ensuring women and families aren’t forgotten.
Juhi Srivastava
India
Juhi Srivastava is a fierce and effective advocate for rural India's most vulnerable people. Over the past decade at Manav Sansadhan Evam Mahila Vikas Sansthan (MSEMVS), she has worked in often dangerous conditions to reach those who tend to be overlooked and exploited, helping them transform from victims into thriving, engaged citizens and community members who achieve economic independence.
Even before earning a Postgraduate degree in Social Work, Juhi recognized the devastating impact of exploitation, particularly on women and children. Rather than pursuing quick fixes, she dedicated her life to empowering communities to stand up for themselves and work collectively for change. Her comprehensive approach has helped more than 200 villages onto a path of true sustainability and justice, with particular focus on educating children of brick kiln workers' families.
At the village level, Juhi ensures that every person gets their identification card, which allows them to access government services, often for the first time in their lives. She helps ensure that all children get enrolled in school and attend regularly, getting caught up to grade-level within three years. She also facilitates psychological counseling, vocational training, and legal aid, enabling villagers to build their lives with dignity and become agents of change within their own communities.
Beyond village-level work, Juhi has proven effective at creating larger-scale transformation. She brings grassroots insights into advocacy work that has influenced stronger legal frameworks at local and district levels, while informing national policy discussions. She never wavers in challenging exploitative networks— local, national, or transnational— even when facing personal danger.
Juhi deftly navigates potentially challenging situations through relationships of trust built with at-risk villages, local law enforcement, and other partners. Her courage, resilience, and unwavering belief in the inherent worth of every individual inspire everyone around her.
Susan Risel
Nepal
Susan Risel is a peace practitioner based in Kathmandu, Nepal. She is a Chief Executive Officer of Nagarik Aawaz (Citizen’s Voices), a peace-building organization in Nepal which works with conflict-affected youth and women. In 2003, she joined Nagarik Aawaz as an Admin/Finance Officer. She became a Program Manager at Nagarik Aawaz in 2009, and was later promoted to Chief Executive Officer in 2011. Susan holds two Masters Degrees: Masters in Business Administration from Tribhuvan University of Nepal and Masters in Applied Conflict Transformation Studies from Pannasastra University of Cambodia. Currently, she is a PhD Fellow of Applied Conflict Transformation Studies, which is a collaborative programme between Center for Peace Studies and Pannasatra University, Cambodia. Her Phd Research topic is “Understanding the definition of justice and dignity through the perspectives of sexually and physically tortured women of the conflict era of Nepal”.
Susan first became interested in peace-building through her experiences at Nagarik Aawaz. Listening to the many stories of hardship and suffering of the conflict-affected communities made her want to continue her work in peace with commitment and dedication. This also led Susan in doing Master in Applied Conflict Transformation Studies and PhD in Applied Conflict Transformation Studies so that she could gain theoretical knowledge in peace-building, to compliment her practical knowledge, and contribute that knowledge to improve lives of conflict-affected people. Susan is very passionate about the issues of conflict affected communities, particularly the issues of women. She is a long term peace practitioner/advocate who believes that every member of the community has the right to live a peaceful life with social justice and dignity.
Laxmi Ghalan
Nepal
Laxmi Ghalan is a trailblazing activist and the President / Founder of Mitini Nepal, the first organization in Nepal dedicated to the rights and dignity of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LBT) individuals. As a proud member of the LBT community, Laxmi has spent over two decades courageously challenging deeply rooted discrimination in Nepali society. Raised in a conservative community where early marriage was the norm, Laxmi defied expectations by refusing to conform to heteronormative roles and instead chose to create a safe, inclusive space for LBT individuals. In 2005, Laxmi formally established Mitini Nepal, building on a grassroots support group that Laxmi co-founded in 2002. With Laxmi’s leadership, the organization has delivered psychosocial counseling, legal assistance, and skill-building training to LBT individuals throughout Nepal.
Laxmi Ghalan’s bravery is evident in their fight to live authentically despite facing rejection, threats, and violence. Their advocacy has led to major legal breakthroughs, including Nepal’s first recognized same-sex cohabitation case, where the Supreme Court upheld a lesbian couple’s right to live together. On December 5, 2022, Laxmi filed a petition in the Supreme Court to redefine marriage in Nepal, aiming to ensure legal recognition of same-sex unions. This bold move reflects their ongoing commitment to equality and LGBTQIA+ rights in the country. Through tireless lobbying, Laxmi has pushed for inclusive policies, such as recognition in the national census and budget allocations at multiple government levels. Laxmi’s work continues to inspire others to speak out, demand justice, and create change. In a country where sexual and gender minorities still face systemic discrimination, Laxmi’s fearless leadership lights the way for future generations.